People lose touch all the time with relatives and friends as they grow apart or move away. Locating individuals after years of no contact is not normally easy, and requires at least a little bit of information on the individual. However, with some time and due diligence in searching, you may locate people you want to see or speak with again.

With online social networking websites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, becoming more and more popular all the time, it can be easier than ever to search and find long-lost acquaintances through these sites.

Start by searching the social network for the person's name. Unless the name is unique in some way, expect a lot of results that may require you to eliminate on an individual basis.

Narrow the search results by clicking on a location option, such as state or city. Some social networks also allow users to search by college or high school, as well as employer. These filters all can provide assistance when trying to locate people.

If you find someone you believe is the person you are looking for, use the social networks private messaging system to send a note asking to connect and to confirm he is, in fact, the person you want to find.

Log on to your Internet and go to WhitePages.com page. Type the name of the person who you are looking for in the name box. If you know the state she moved to, enter that as well. There are labeled box fields for you to enter the information into.

Click the “Submit” button to start the search and wait for results.

Scroll through the list to locate the person. This is not always easy, since the list can sometimes be long. Also if you don’t have something else to narrow it down, such as a middle name or initial, then it is even more difficult.

Call the numbers of the people on the list you think might be the person you are looking for to eliminate names.

Contact the state Vital Records office of the state where the person lives or where you think he lives.

Give them the name of the person and any other information you have, such as birth date or when he moved.

Write down the list of names and addresses you get that closely match the person's information you are looking for.

Pay the fee if there is one. If charged, it is typically a nominal fee of $5 to $30, depending on the amount of service, and this is usually if the researcher has to dig through old files or make copies of documents for you.